Matthew Kaye
| birth_place = Queens, New York, USA | death_date = | death_place = | resides = Ossining, New York | billed = Bayside, New York | trainer = Johnny Rodz | debut = 2000 | retired = 2009 }} Matthew Kaye (June 26, 1974) is am American professional wrestler who is best known by the ringname Matt Striker. He is currently a commentator in the WWE on the SmackDown brand. Wrestling Career Kaye made his first appearance in World Wrestling Entertainment during a commercial for the King of the Ring 2002 pay-per-view. Kaye played a person who, while auditioning for the King of the Ring tournament, tried to climb the ropes but fell off. After it was revealed that Kaye was a teacher, and the story was posted on news sites around the world, Kaye made a second appearance in WWE on the July 11, 2005 edition of WWE Raw in to face Kurt Angle once again. Kaye said his name was Matt Martel and that he was from New York but Angle recognized him as Matt Striker, and reminded the audience that Striker was the guy in the news who got fired from teaching for being a wrestler and that Angle had defeated him before when Striker said he was from Philadelphia. Calling Striker "a liar" Angle finally decided to give him a second chance. In the 3:00 minute time limit match Angle defeated Striker for a second time, but Angle managed to make him tap out with only 1 second left on the clock. WWE signed him to a contract on July 12, 2005. On July 18, 2005, Striker made a third appearance for WWE in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, once again attempting to win the Olympic gold medal from Kurt Angle in his invitational. Striker this time said he was Matt Martel and that he was from Philadelphia. Once again exposing him to be a "big liar", Angle attacked and forced Striker/Martel to submit for a third time, though Martel did manage to get Angle in his Happy Monkey chokehold and hold him in it for nearly two minutes. RAW (2005-2006) Striker made his official signed debut on an episode of WWE Heat airing August 7, 2005, where he defeated Johnny Parisi. On September 28, 2005, Striker appeared on WWE Byte This! webcast show and did a less-than-flattering impression of Ultimate Warrior, including numerous references to steroids. He, Todd Grisham and Droz had several jokes at Warrior's expense, resulting in an edited version to be released on WWE's official website days later that takes a more light-hearted approach. This was due to Warrior releasing a paragraph-long statement, calling the host Grisham a "queer", and frequent contributor Droz (who was left a paraplegic by a wrestling accident) a "cripple". On October 21, 2005, Striker turned heel when he walked out on his tag team partner, Shelton Benjamin - in a match against Kerwin White and Nick Nemeth, only one week after Striker helped Benjamin fend off an attack from the pair. He would go on to release a promo on WWE.com referring to WWE as his school. Striker teamed with Kerwin White to defeat Val Venis and Shelton Benjamin on the Taboo Tuesday pre-show Heat, with Striker pinning Benjamin to obtain the victory. Striker's heel teacher gimmick had him hosting a segment called Matt Striker's Classroom on Raw, which was debuted on December 12, where he would insult the crowd about their family values and treat them as intellectual inferiors. The gimmick, which has been compared to that of Dean Douglas, often insinuates that many people in the arena are "smoking the pot" as one of the many insults. Shortly after, in a match that took place on December 18, Striker faced Lance Cade at a house show in Ft. Myers, Florida. During the match, Striker was thrown out of the ring by "Lancelot" (as Striker called him), landing horribly wrong on the floor, thus dislocating his shoulder and putting him out of action until January 23, 2006, when he continued his Classroom segments once again. Striker would continue to host his segment during WWE.com Unlimited for several weeks. On February 21, 2006, Striker announced that he was in the then-latest edition of GQ. Striker would later return to defeat on Heat. Striker would reappear on Raw on April 17 for another classroom segment where he claimed that "School is Cool". This brought out then baby-face, Carlito who took the teacher's apple and spat it in the face of Striker. Striker returned to Raw in-ring action on April 24, where he teamed up with Chris Masters and then-WWE Intercontinental Champion Shelton Benjamin to face Carlito, Rob Van Dam, and Charlie Haas in a six-man tag team match. Striker would end up on the losing end of the match when Rob Van Dam pinned Shelton Benjamin in the closing moments of the contest. During Backlash, Striker would begin to feud with the (kayfabe) mentally impaired Eugene, after Eugene made an appearance on Matt Striker's Classroom during the PPV, and gave him a stunner. Striker gained some measure of revenge on Eugene the following night by hammering him in the back of the head with a dictionary while he was being interviewed. This feud would also involve a tweener Carlito, for a short while, who ended up attacking both Eugene and Striker after Eugene inadvertently caused Carlito to lose a match to Striker by Disqualification on the May 8 edition of Raw. The feud apparently ended when Eugene gained a mentor in Jim Duggan and finally was able to defeat Striker, after losing to him only two weeks before. After this match, Striker proceeded to smash Eugene's head on the steel ring steps. He fled to the back as Duggan approached him, however, Striker later defeated Duggan at a house show. Afterwards, Striker would end up back on the web-show Heat, defeating jobbers. He made small appearances on Raw during June 2006, mainly on WWE Unlimited, but occasionally wrestling as well. During July, Striker would appear on Raw, occasionally teaming with Rob Conway to lose to the debuting Highlanders tag team. During these tag matches Striker would abandon Conway. This resulted in a match between the two on Heat, which Striker won. Striker's final match on Raw was on July 31, where he was defeated in quick fashion by John Cena. This match came about as a result of Striker insulting Cena during one of his Classroom segments a week prior, claiming that then-WWE Champion Edge was greater than Cena. Commentary (2008-Present) As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Striker was drafted back to the Raw brand. Once the SmackDown color commentator, Mick Foley, was storyline injured by Edge, however, Tazz moved over to SmackDown to fill in for Foley who actually left the WWE in real life and Striker remained on ECW to take over Tazz's duties as color commentator. He made his commentary debut on the August 5 episode of ECW and on August 17, 2008 at SummerSlam he called his first pay-per-view match (Matt Hardy vs. Mark Henry, which Hardy would win by DQ). Since then, Striker's commentating has been highly praised by fans and has become a fan favorite and Striker and Todd Grisham even won the 2008 Slammy Award for Announce Team of the Year. Despite the face turn he sometimes does go for the heel wrestler especialy if it's CM Punk or Chris Jericho who are both currently role model type heels like he was in the past. On the April 7, 2009 episode of ECW, Grisham and Striker's commentary partnership came to an end when Grisham moved to the SmackDown brand, and Josh Mathews became the new play-by-play commentator. In addition to commentating on ECW on SyFy and ECW pay-per-view matches, Striker along with Mathews would represent the ECW brand on WWE Superstars every week starting with the inaugural episode on April 16, 2009. On October 27, 2009 it was announced that Striker would move from commentary on ECW to SmackDown, reuniting with Grisham. The move was made to help accommodate Jim Ross, who has been taking time off to deal with his recent Bell's palsy attack. Wrestling facts *'Finishing and signature moves' :*Golden Rule (Inverted Overdrive) :*Lungblower :*The Over Drive *'Nicknames' :*"Modern Marvel" *'Tag teams and stables' :*New Strike Force - with Scotty Charisma :*Knight Life :*New Breed *'Managers' :*ES Easton (ECWA) *'Wrestlers managed' :*Big Daddy V (WWE) (2007-2008) *'Theme music' :*"Hot For Teacher" by Van Halen (ROH) Championships and accomplishments *'East Coast Wrestling Association' :*ECWA Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Ace Darling *'New York Wrestling Connection' :*NYWC Heavyweight Champion (1 time) :*NYWC Interstate Champion (1 time) :*NYWC Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Rob Eckos *'Premier Wrestling Federation' :*PWF Universal Tag Team Champion (1 time) - with Josh Daniels *'USA Pro Wrestling' :*USA Pro Tag Team Champion (2 time) - with Simon Diamond See also *Matt Striker’s event history *Matt Striker’s gimmicks External links and references *Matt Striker profile at WWE.com *Matthew Kaye profile at CAGEMATCH.net *Matthew Kaye's entrance theme Striker, Matt Category:Commentators Category:Managers and valets Category:Assault Championship Wrestling alumni Category:Ballpark Brawl alumni Striker, Matt Striker, Matt Striker, Matt Category:Hoosier Pro Wrestling alumni Category:Independent Championship Wrestling alumni Striker, Matt Category:Major League Wrestling alumni Striker, Matt Category:NWA Cyberspace alumni Striker, Matt Striker, Matt Striker, Matt Striker, Matt Category:Pro Wrestling ZERO1 alumni Category:Ring of Honor alumni Category:USA Pro Wrestling alumni Striker, Matt Category:1974 births